Autumn Term 2

Week 5

The arrival of our new playground equipment was met with great excitement! A huge thank you to the Friends of Hillcross for making this possible. As geographers, we have begun exploring maps and using directional language in preparation for our upcoming fieldwork, where we will create maps of our own.

In Science, we continued our learning with an inspiring webinar led by Robert Swan, who shared his experiences in Antarctica, the animals he has encountered, and the vital role the Antarctic plays in global eco-sustainability.

After completing our Little Beauty stories, we turned our attention to non-chronological reports and have begun researching and gathering fascinating facts about gorillas!

Week 4

Christmas has arrived at Hillcross and the children have been very excited to decorate the classrooms, bringing festive joy to all! As mathematicians, we have continued to explore shapes and patterns, with a special focus on tangrams and radiating designs. As writers, the children created their own versions of the Little Beauty story and turned them into wonderful books. In our outside learning area, the children have been very inventive with the resources, devising new games to play together and showing great creativity and teamwork.

Week 3

As mathematicians, we have been continuing to learn about shapes and exploring how they can be used to create pictures and repeated patterns. As writers, we have started our Little Beauty story writing, which has been met with lots of enthusiasm thanks to our story-map input and rehearsing which we hear has been happening at home as well! The children also enjoyed performing different scenes to show kind and unkind acts to support our PSHE lessons. Finally, we started our journey into DT learning by researching different pop up books in preparation to design and make our own versions! Never a quiet moment in Year 1!

Week 2

In recognition of Anti-Bullying Week, we demonstrated our commitment to kindness by wearing odd socks and creating impactful posters with the message to Stop Bullying.

We also had an amazing, immersive experience using headphones to dive deeper into our current topic of animals. Students listened to and acted out a thrilling rescue mission, which even included an imaginary journey on an airplane!

Finally, we celebrated Michael Rosen Day with a live virtual assembly from the author himself. The reference to "chocolate cake" was a delightful nod that many of the children will surely understand!

 

Week 1

Ahoy me hearties! We’ve launched into an exciting pirate-and-mermaid adventure that has truly inspired the children on their return to school! It’s been a wonderfully busy week full of creativity and curiosity — from developing our own character profiles and carrying out scientific experiments, to designing and building pirate ships, hunting for treasure, and even welcoming some VERY exciting visitors! What a fantastic start to our new learning journey.